“And to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” ~ Eph 5:27
In the above scripture, the church is likened to a glowing bride. A bride holy and blameless because of submission to one another out of reverence for Christ (v. 21). This surely “pleases the Lord” (v. 10) when we live as children of light (v. 8) for the sake of good fruit (v.9). Preparing as a bride requires a lot of intentional effort, planning, and collaboration not only on her wedding day but also the many months leading up to that special day.
That’s exactly what happened in a recent Kairos course at Coastal Chapel in Lake Worth, Florida. Students from Finland embarked on a three-month mission-training internship by taking a Kairos intensive. This hybrid course was a collaborative effort between Head Facilitator Mark Ogden and Vamos Mission, sponsored by FIDA International.
Mark is a seasoned mobilizer with CRU, currently based in Florida. He has a missionary background serving in China and with Asian American churches. This is the second year he has partnered with Lauri and Anne Sorila, and Marjo Hallapuro, all Finnish mobilizers who serve with FIDA full-time and have ministry ties to Spain. Last year’s partnership also recruited Matt Hutchcraft, another seasoned mobilizer based in Minnesota who has a missionary background in Russia and Ukraine and is currently SMUSA’s interim Slavic Language Coordinator.
Joining Mark’s facilitation team this year was a young Finnish YWAM intern named Ana-Sofia, who presented a Kairos chapter for the first time. Matt also joined the team again this year, this time online, and recruited three more facilitators (Hutch, Leslie, and Nathan) from his Minnesota team to join in remotely, along with two additional Estonian facilitators (Aleksandr & Konstantin) located in Florida to be there in person. This created a facilitation team from multiple locations, rich in diverse cultural backgrounds and age ranges that bridged generations working together in a hybrid course.
Though most of the course was presented in English, at times the conversation switched to Finnish to clarify concepts and foster growth point group discussions in their native tongue. The ages of the participants in the internship can range from late teens to early thirties, and their goal is to study Muslim ministry, serve alongside South Florida churches in local outreach, and take a short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
This year’s participants were particularly encouraged to see young leaders on the facilitation team such as 18-year-old Nathan and Ana-Sophia. Leslie shared with the group her testimony of leaving the traditional workforce to join SEND International as a full-time missionary to reach the diaspora in Minnesota after taking Kairos. Her story impacted an older couple deciding which direction they were going facing a similar decision. Hutch’s incredibly moving show of faithfulness and strength while presenting with the encouragement of his wife of 53 years despite her being hospitalized, didn’t leave a dry eye in the room. Aleks and Konstantin brought joy and familiarity by connecting with the Finnish interns as near neighbors since Estonia is directly across from Finland. Mark relayed that sometimes he felt like he was overseas again, hearing the various spoken languages and fellowshipping with everyone during break times.
Graduates enthusiastically finished the course, encouraged to journey forward on their missionary training as an invitation to live life on mission with God in a transformative new way. One notable quote from an intern stated:
This course made me think about things from a new angle. I think it is intense and we go through a lot of material. But the material is very good and gives us a picture of God's mission and how we can be a part of that.
All of this collaborative effort, the mix of diverse cultures and languages, multi-generational bridging, and a slew of ministry partnerships uniquely broadened and enriched this course. It also embodied all of Simply Mobilizing’s core values of Kingdom Culture, Integrity, Training and Mentoring, Teamwork, Partnerships, Flexibility and Creativity, resulting in a microcosmic demonstration of a radiantly unblemished bride presentable to her bridegroom.
Comments